Mini Biography
Named for the Zulu word for "power," Amandla is a force to be reckoned with. She landed the first of her Disney catalog modeling shoots when she was four years old and has shot numerous national commercials, most notably for McDonald's with Ronald McDonald, for Walmart with DJ Tony, Anthony Okungbowa from Ellen DeGeneres (LeVar Burton directed), and for Build The Dream. This moving, Boeing- sponsored PSA, which raised funds for a national memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., premiered during the weekend of President Obama's inauguration in January 2009 on Meet the Press (1947).

In the summer and fall of 2010, the actress shot her first feature, Colombiana (2011), an action-thriller starring Zoe Saldana whose character, Cataleya Restrepo, Amandla plays as a child. She opens the movie, setting the stage for Saldana's avenging assassin. The Luc Besson vehicle is quintessential Besson, featuring lots of daring stunts, some of which Amandla performed herself. On set to help Amandla hone her natural athletic abilities was David Belle, the French-born creator of Parkour.

In March 2011, Amandla filmed the Hallmark Channel movie A Taste of Romance (2012). In April 2011, Lionsgate announced that Amandla had landed the role of Rue in the screen adaptation of Suzanne Collins' popular young adult series, The Hunger Games (2012). For her heart-breaking performance, Amandla earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. She also won (with Jennifer Lawrence) a Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Chemistry.

Recent projects include the short Mercy (2013) in which Amandla stars as the daughter of Paula Patton and singer Robin Thicke, who wrote and directed, and a pilot with Craig Robinson for NBC Universal. She plays herself, poking fun at how frequently her name is mispronounced, in a skit with friend Kiernan Shipka from Mad Men (2007) for Funny or Die's Child Star Psychologist 3 with Kiernan Shipka (2013). In November 2013, Amandla began a guest-starring stint as Macey, the daughter of Captain Frank Irving (Orlando Jones), on Fox's Sleepy Hollow (2013).

In addition to on-camera jobs, Amandla has put her sensitive ear to work in voice-over gigs for both film and television. Moviegoers can catch Amandla lending her voice to Rio 2 (2014) in the role of Bia, a high-flying feathery spawn of Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) and Jewel (Anne Hathaway). A gifted musician, she plays the violin, drums and guitar. In 2009, Amandla performed the violin with Los Angeles Unified School District's Honors Orchestra at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex. Her involvement with the RockSTAR Music Education program landed her gigs on the guitar and drums at the House of Blues and the Hard Rock Café, as well as a studio session with producer/ engineer Gerry Brown, after her band won RockSTAR's Battle of the Bands. In 2013 she began playing violin with a folk rock band at venues in Los Angeles.

Amandla is a youth ambassador for No Kid Hungry (Jeff Bridges serves as spokesperson for the charity's umbrella organization, Share Our Strength), and supports the Ubuntu Education Fund, which nurtures children "from cradle to career" in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Karen Brailsford

Trivia
Mother is African-American and father is Danish.

Amandla means power in Zulu.

Likes to knit.

Paternal grandmother was an Inuit from Greenland.

At the dedication ceremony of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. on October 16, 2011, Amandla gave a speech entitled "Reflections on Women of the Civil Rights Movement" with Cicely Tyson. Her talk honored the four girls who were killed in the Birmingham church bombing in 1963.

Variety featured Amandla in its "Up Next" section in the publication's 2011 Youth Impact Report.